I have two experiences that have been so fantastic, that I have to share them.

When I was in the eigth grade we moved to Port Huron, Michigan. While this was over 40 years ago, at the time the library there was almost a hundred years old. It was a testament not only to our benefactor Andrew Carnegie, but also to the Industrial Revolution and modular cast iron structure. I was young, and the only light in the towering stacks were from bare light bulbs and the translucent glass floors that allowed the muted light to be shared by the adjacent floors. The narrow spiral staircases that joined each floor, with their translucent glass steps made ascending and descending between the seemingly weightless floors an even eerier experience. My first lonely summer there with no human friends, turned this endless supply of human experience into a fantastical world to which I would love to retreat to this day. Thank you Mr. Carnegie!

The next experience, again occurred, during a lonely summer, where we had just .moved to the town of Wake Forest, North Carolina. The college of Wake Forest had moved from there in 1957, to become Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina. On the corner of Main Street, across from the old Wake Forest Chapel was the old school book shop. When we moved there, it was called Steven's Bookshop. It was even darker and more frightening than the library at Port Huron. On the tall bookshelves where ancient law books sat, cobwebs moved gently in the darkness with each pass over the stacks of books that cluttered the floors. It had been years since Mr. Stevens had sorted his books. Every visit was a treasure hunt, and they were all his children. I'll never forget finding the series "Journeys Through Bookland," the same edition my grandmother used to have. It was all there, but the second volume. I begged Mr. Stevens to sell the set to me....but he wouldn't. He knew he had the second volume somewhere, and he knew he would find it. For two and a half years I begged him to sell the set to me. Finally, he did allow me to buy the set. It is the most wonderful set of stories....but....the best book of the series was volume 2, the one that is stilissed, even I can remember the limerics and poetry my grandmother used to read to us.

I think we all love our books, but just now I realized, how important my grandmother's and my mother's love of books and stories was to nurturing that desire in me. Thanks Grandma, Mom and Mr. Carnegie. I think he donated over 1000 libraries around the country, maybe many more than that....on my cell phone, or Is Google it.

I have just returned from a visit to Springfield, IL where I was able to visit two of my favorite places - the ALPL and Prairie Archives.

Prairie Archives has all of the great aspects of an old bookstore - piles of books everywhere, great art work, and the smell of old books. The Lincoln section always has a fabulous great find or two. I wish I could have stayed longer.

(05-05-2013 08:38 PM)Dawn E Foster Wrote:  Grammy just found out tonight that she's going to be again!

Congratulations, Dawn!

(05-02-2013 11:29 AM)Gene C Wrote:  or chocolate...

I noticed your quote and I just HAD to share this! So many times, the quote does not always follow the man, but....

I used to work with victims of domestic violence and rape and many of the ladies with whom I worked were African American women whose partners seldom lived with the family, or took an active interest in their children.

We were visiting my daughter and her husband in St. Petersburg, Florida and went to the mall. While we were there, I happened to notice this African American man with his arm on his teenaged son's shoulder looking at the mall directory and talking to him in such a way that I was struck with awe. You really had to be there to get a sense of why I was feeling this way. There was just something about the two of them together, shopping. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but there was so much love and understanding between them that I asked my daughter and her husband to look at them (nothing like being a country bumpkin!).

My son-in-law looked at me and said, "Don't you know who that is?"

I said, "No."

And he said, "That's Tony Dungy!"

Ever since then, Tony Dungy has had a very special place in my heart!

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For those of you whose pockets are feeling a bit threadbare right now, have you checked out "The Internet Archive?". It is an incredible free resource online...the things you can find there from texts to music, recordings and videos, from libraries all over the world is AMAZING!

From what I understand, Mr. Dungy treated his players in the same fashion. Wish we had more like him.

(05-02-2013 07:34 PM)KateH. Wrote:  Never understood the pull to e-books. Yes, they are portable and all that jazz, but there is nothing like reading an actual book and turning actual pages.

I don't think there is ANYTHING that can replace the touch of paper and the sight of black and white....even though, I can understand the words on a computer or the screen of my phone, it's as if I am reading them from a distant land or from deep underwater, if I can't touch or feel the paper between my fingers.

(05-06-2013 03:16 PM)scldrgnfly Wrote:  Ever since then, Tony Dungy has had a very special place in my heart!

For those of you who haven't read it, his book "Quiet Strength" is a very nice book about football but more about living a spiritual life. And it's relatively inexpensive too.

http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Strength-Pri...1414318022

Thanks, scldrgnfly, for that lovely story. Gene, I had no idea who Tony Dungy is. Quiet Strength sounds good.

It's funny, but I wish some how Mr. Dungy would hear about what I saw, and perceived, without even knowing who he was! I just think it is so incredible how his true spirit just emanated from his presence and demeanor. It was a very special experience to be able to observe it from afar. What a testimony to his character!